From Maryland by Vernon Betkey, Jr. , the head of Maryland's Highway Safety Office as well as Governors Highway Safety Association chairman

Nationally, pedestrian fatalities account for about 12 percent [in Maryland that's over 20%] of overall traffic deaths, a small but significant portion. Given that we have made so much progress in this area, GHSA is concerned to see this reversal. One factor may be the increased distractions for both pedestrians and drivers. Anyone who travels in a busy city has seen countless pedestrians engrossed in conversation or listening to music while crossing a busy street. Just as drivers need to focus on driving safely, pedestrians need to focus on walking safely – without distractions.

Now compare:

From North Carolina:

Rapid urbanization, a weakened economy, and growing numbers of vulnerable populations (including older pedestrians and socio-economically disadvantaged groups) without other transportation options have challenged the State to keep up with issues specific to pedestrian safety and mobility.

From Nevada:

Like many other places in the southwest, the road network in Clark County consists of arterials that are designed as six lanes with intersections jumping to eight lanes. In urban area that bisects freeways or beltways, intersection can be as large as 12 lanes! Streets are flat with wide lanes that are comfortable for speed and there are few places marked for pedestrians to cross the street. On major arterial streets the norm is to have nowhere for up to a mile stretch for pedestrians to safely cross the street.

Maryland has gone from a ranking of #20 to the currently 4th highest pedestrian fatality rate in the Nation. I really don't think campaigns like below are working. (And zebra striping crosswalks would not hurt either, two parallel lines and that's it, sheesh.)So I am joining with Greater Greater Washington and asking those who would like to see a change for the better please write Betkey, his boss Neil Pedersen, and Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley -- vbetkey@sha.state.md.us,NPedersen@sha.state.md.us,bswaim-staley@mdot.state.md.us

[Note: I rewrote GGW's article to put a different spin on it. So it might be worth reading David's article as well.]

I am appalled by Maryland's current pedestrian fatality ranking by FARS
being the 4th highest in the Nation along with Vernon Betkey, Jr.
statement in GHSA press release:

Nationally, pedestrian fatalities account for about 12 percent [in Maryland that's over 20%]
of overall traffic deaths, a small but significant portion. Given that
we have made so much progress in this area, GHSA is concerned to see
this reversal. One factor may be the increased distractions for both
pedestrians and drivers. Anyone who travels in a busy city has seen
countless pedestrians engrossed in conversation or listening to music
while crossing a busy street. Just as drivers need to focus on driving
safely, pedestrians need to focus on walking safely – without
distractions.

I am totally unaware of any study that even hints
that those are the major problems on the pedestrian side. This is a very
shameful accusation as there should be nothing hazardous for pedestrains
to engage in these activities while lawfully crossing a street. So
please let me point out that BECAUSE of unsafe driver behavior
pedestrains safety is put at risk. What's next? Homicide prevention
campaign of "Don't stand in front of a gun, because it's dangerous"?

As a sometime pedestrian as well as countless comments given to me let
me emphatically state that there is a high failure rate of cars yielding
to pedestrains in crosswalks along with harassment of honking and
intimidation.

It is imperative that safety officials understand
the cyclical nature of the problem. Drivers don't stop for peds in the
crosswalk. Peds now cross mid-block because it feels safer. Peds now are
constantly yielding to cars when crossing in this manner (You probably
passed a ped within inches while they were standing on the center line
and you probably thought nothing of it.) Drivers are now trained that
peds yield to them. So now drivers do not stop for peds in crosswalks.

To date no safety program has addressed this issue even remotely well. We need to put a lot more emphases on § 21-504. Drivers to exercise due care [and not hit pedestrains] and not on some made up antithesis of this.

Even Secretary LaHood knows right-on-red are hazardous to
pedestrains and had them eliminated when a employee was struck outside
the offices in DC. I see
no such effort to eliminate right-on-red here in Maryland. This is not following best engineering practices for pedestrains.

TR § 2-602 requires the best
engineering standards in accommodating pedestrains. You mean to tell me
that two barley visible lines are "the best engineering practices" for
marking a crosswalk? By a freeway exit? Where a 17 year old girl was killed. Seriously??? Lets get some more
zebra stripes or big fat bars for crosswalks. Too many of our roads look like they are for cars only and everything else is trespassing. This has to change!

Lets do some
studies, survives, experimental designs, anything to help change the
status quo. Let's think about ways to legalizing human behavior rather then
requiring people to act like robots.

Clever Crosswalk Squashes Jaywalking, by Making it LegalWe need to get ped accommodations into the 21century! Studies have shown on-demand traffic signals have a higher compliance among drivers. What makes you think that pedestrains are different and will readily accept a long prequeue delay before the lights start to do anything? Failure to treat pedestrains as equal road users is contributing to our high fatality rate. We need to put a end to to thinking that fast road users need to go faster and should not experience even the slightest delay, while on the other hand slow road users will not mind going even slower and have no problem with delays and obstacles each and every block.

-
Global warming, increasing obesity rates, traffic congestion,
dependence on foreign oil, leading causes of premature death and the
economy... if only there was a common solution."A
red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be
horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be
both red and roses."- Oscar Wilde